Here is part two of how my 2016 is going to look. Part one announced no changes to the blog. I guess it was a little odd to announce nothing but there you have it. On to part two!

Last summer I swapped my office and my son’s play area. It seemed a good idea, no pile of toys right inside the front door and more use of the dining room space. There is only one problem. I hate it. Here, let me count the ways:

I am a private person and having my office on display as you walk right in the front door has not been conducive to my productivity. The large space made it hard to concentrate and there are a lot of distractions downstairs.

Turns out I am not a fan of dual purpose rooms. While it seemed eminently practical to have my daily use office and once or twice a year dining room share space I hate feeling like I am working in the dining room. I also didn’t enjoy eating Christmas dinner in my office.

The current set up has my back to the front door unless I take my laptop out of the desk and put it on the dining room table, which is what I usually end up doing (like right now).

I have been reluctant to do any sort of project that requires I leave it spread out on the dining room table. Partly I don’t like looking at a mess and mostly because small child would certainly feel compelled to touch, rearrange, want to participate or provide some sort of input which undoubtedly would annoy me.

The living/dining room faces north and west which equals rather dark and chilly this time of year. My old office was at the back of the house and faces south. These past two weeks I have found myself migrating to the futon in my old office to sit and think, in the warm sunshine.

My son never plays in the new playroom. I think it is because it is upstairs and he seldom wants to be up there alone. In fact it has just become a dumping ground for toys and most times I can barely get in there to reach my craft supplies in the closet or the filing cabinet to put away bills.

I did a lot of thinking about solutions to include moving to a house with a fifth bedroom or office space. That seemed a bit extreme though. I had no perfect idea and finally asked myself, “what would make me the most happy and what would make me the least unhappy?” Moving my office back upstairs won most happy hands down. Least unhappy would be losing the formal living room. So I have a plan. The end of the week and over the weekend we will once again be toting items up and down the stairs, moving furniture and going through chaos in an attempt to find harmony in this house. Stay tuned.

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3 thoughts on “Changes (Part II)”

The dual purpose use of rooms made me realize why I am so reluctant to sew in my dining area. Thanks for sparking some insight to my own feelings. Enjoy the change process, which will no doubt make you happier.

I hope this change works, I am getting tired of moving furniture and books up and down stairs! It was disappointing that the dining room as office too didn’t work out. It seemed such a practical solution. Let me know how you handle the dining room/sewing room dilemma.